dee_smith2

Another wonderfully evil animal. I think you kitty could take him, though.

The way that you capture light is amazing. It is there in all your shots. I wish I knew how the heck you do it. I can tell you are a master of Photoshop in a way that really adds to your images. I am going to study all your pictures now.

 

This looks like an amazing watercolor. I want this for my house. I don't know why you don't have more comments.

I like this one much better than the other one. More visual interest here, but the foreground is still pretty blown out with loss of details. I know what it's like to travel, be at the place you want to photograph at a time of day when the lighting is not optimum and to have to deal with the lighting that exists and do the best you can.

Cool! I like it very much.

The white fur looks a bit gray. A minor levels adjustment would fix it. I noticed that some of the shots in your portfolio are somewhat underexposed. Maybe it's a style thing, but I think that you might look through the many fine pictures on this site, compare the lighting in your own photos and learn from the masters (of which I admittedly am not one). Maybe your monitor is set too brightly?

Wow. Disturbing. Whites are a bit blown out, but the stark lighting somehow seems to capture the essence of the horror represented here. Very strong. 7/7

Another very cool pet shot. Really strong composition. This cat looks comically evil like your dog. How do you do it?

Spectacular! Wonderful composition and colors.

I am still laughing as I write this. One of the funniest and best pet shots I've seen. What an evil puppy!!! Very well done. Perfect.

The small size on this ratings page does not do this justice. I think that would account for the low rating I see before mine. I really like this one very much. Good job.

Amazing moment in time. I love the pigeon. Wish the feet weren't cut off. . . but it doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the photo.

Outstandingly creative! Excellent composition and subject matter. One of my favorites on this site. 7/7

Your porfolio is stunning. This is beautifully done and the composition is excellent. I love the way the blur of the bright part of the sun adds to the balance and softness of the background.

Wonderful DOF. Really lovely job.

Really nice. I wasn't sure at first glance, but it is very haunting and disturbing, in a good way!! 6/6

Perfect composition. 7/7

Charming composition and great capture.

Beautiful shot, great ethereal light. I do think the (tacky) frame detracts from this lovely artwork. I would love to see it with a very simple, if any, frame.

Unbelievable, in a great way!! The tonal range is exceptional and very painterly. I with the dark tree was not smack in the middle, but a minor criticism only.

The braid itself is pretty, and so why not crop out everything else to draw the viewers attention to the patterns of the hair? The white sweater is very distracting and blown out on the left, and the ears seem to be floating in the black background.

One of the most perfect abstracts I've ever seen. 7/7

Breathtaking. It's not a cliche if it's the best one I've ever seen of this. The composition is perfect. 7/7

Just beautiful. I think I may have liked it better if the lizard was not in the center but rather further to the left. But maybe not. . . this was so eye-catching with the tones and textures. Wonderful capture.

This is sensational. I love old factories and steam. . . The light on the steam is tryly remarkable, and the painterly look is masterful. Wonderufl job.

Hi Ethan. I'm going to use this one picture as a means to comment on some of your others as well.

I think you have the beginnings of a good eye (I like the shot with the guy running in the path) but there is usually either too much going on in your photos or no actual subject or visual interest. Take this one. What is supposed to draw my eye, what is the subject, specifically? Is it the puddle in front, is it the sky w/the stripes (??)is it the somewhat interesting (though hard to see because of soft focus) rock structures in the mid-ground? The scene itself as you chose to show me is just not interesting enough to draw my eye and make me go "Wow. What a stunning landscape. What cool colors, textures, etc. "

This would have been greatly improved if you focused on but one aspect of the scene. Go run over to the rock formation and take some closeups of rock textures. Take the area where the lone tree hits the orange soil and contrast the colors. Take a picture of a spider in the mud puddle.

And use a basic photo editing program to clean up your shots. Those strips in the sky could have been cloned out easily and the focused sharped up with unsharp mask. I think your compositions would greatly benefit from cropping. It will really improve your eye so that when you go back in the field you will start seeing what and what not to include in the frame.

You have another shot of a beautiful golden sunset that would have greatly benefited from cropping out the dark stuff no the bottom that was uninteresting and detracted from the beauty of the sunset itself. Also would have cropped out a bit on the left so that the sunset would not have been so centered.

You've got some nice mountain shots, but you will see as you take more pictures in your life that working with a white sky is often an exercize in futility and at times it is better to shoot around it. Also, there was an interesting shot of sun rays with livestock below, but you cut off their poor legs unintentionally I'll bet. The light was blinding enough that any artistic statement you may have been trying to make was obscured by the blown-out area on top and the half-cows (horses?) on the bottom.

I just looked at the photos you rated 7/7 and you really do have a sense of what makes a great photo. They are ones that I would have rated the same. Take a good look at them and try to figure out what is so right about them. See what the photographer choose to keep in the pic and what they choose to disregard or imply. I have learned a lot from looking at photographers who were better than me and trying to figure out exactly what made their art so excellent.

I'm not saying I'm the greatest photographer in the world, not by a long shot, but if you want any more help or comments, e-mail me and I'd be glad to oblige. Good luck and keep shooting.